![\"TEDESCHI-TRUCKS-BAND-Issue-No29\"](\"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/TEDESCHI-TRUCKS-BAND-Issue-No29.jpg\")
<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\nThe Tedeschi Trucks Band is only three years old, but its namesakes, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, have been married more than a decade, and they\u2019re about to take their best collaborations\u2014their two children\u2014to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 batting practice before tonight\u2019s concert. \u201cThe kids are a balancing influence on the road,\u201d Tedeschi laughs. \u201cEverybody acts a little better when they\u2019re along.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the 11-piece blues-rock band recorded Made Up Mind<\/i>, their first studio album since their Grammy-winning 2011 debut, Revelator<\/i>, any pressure they felt to live up to their prior success was entirely self-generated. \u201cWe have high standards for what we do,\u201d says Trucks, 34, who co-produced the album with Jim Scott (Wilco, Robert Randolph) while balancing ongoing touring duties with the Allman Brothers Band. \u201cIt\u2019s one of those bands that, after every show, someone is mildly beating themselves up over what could have been better. Every time we hit the road or go into the studio, we try to up the ante.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recorded in the couple\u2019s Jacksonville, Fla., home studio with a revolving cast of bassists (their original bassist, Oteil Burbridge, left the band last year), Made Up Mind<\/i> encompasses a wider spectrum of music than its predecessor, incorporating shades of Motown and Americana. \u201cWe planned to be more experimental with the sound of this record,\u201d Tedeschi, 42, explains. \u201cNow that we\u2019ve been playing together for so long, we\u2019ve really started to create our own sound.\u201d Tedeschi and Trucks discuss the new album, the creative process, and standards in the studio.<\/p>\n
How do you write?<\/b><\/p>\n
TRUCKS: We have to schedule it. When we started talking about doing the record, we set aside time in the studio to write. We started calling our friends\u2014[musicians] Doyle Bramhall, Oliver Wood and John Leventhal\u2014to come down for two or three days at a time, and we\u2019d write. That\u2019s been our method for the last half-dozen years or so. Some songs start with a lyric or title, some with a chord change or melody\u2014it\u2019s different every time. We\u2019re pretty open to following a song wherever it goes. With Doyle, you\u2019ll begin with a riff and then start putting the demo together. He\u2019ll play bass and I\u2019ll play drums. Some guys will sit down with an acoustic guitar and write a tune, and others will come up with something off the top of their head. That\u2019s the beauty of working with different people\u2014there are a lot of different methods.<\/p>\n
How much material did you have?<\/b><\/p>\n
TRUCKS: We had about 16 or 18 tunes that we were pulling from. For this record, instead of stacking up as many tunes as we could, we focused on making sure that each one we wrote was a legitimate contender for the record. When you have a home studio, you\u2019re constantly adding to your recorded material. There\u2019s easily three or four records\u2019 worth of stuff we\u2019ve recorded there that hasn\u2019t made it to an album yet.<\/p>\n
How long were you in the studio?<\/b><\/p>\n
TEDESCHI: With mixing and everything, it\u2019s hard to judge because we broke it up into segments. It wasn\u2019t like we just sat and made an album\u2014we\u2019d go out and tour in between. But I\u2019d say about six weeks total. We worked for maybe three weeks on songwriting, and then about two solid weeks of\u00a0tracking the record.<\/p>\n
TRUCKS: The engineer, Bobby Tis, and Jim Scott and I spent a lot of time listening to things. Because it\u2019s a home studio, Susan and I can always add things. We had Kofi Burbridge come down for an extra few days so he could listen to all the tracks and see if there were any parts he wanted to add. He\u2019s playing B3, grand piano, clavinet and flute, so sometimes there might be a part that he didn\u2019t get to play live on the floor that he wanted to add. A lot of the time was spent after the basic tracking, which is always pretty quick\u2014usually a song or two per day. The fine-tuning, mixing and minor editing is where the heavy work goes in.<\/p>\n
How do you arrange songs?<\/b><\/p>\n
TRUCKS: Some of it\u2019s intuitive, but Susan and I have to steer the ship the way we want it. Susan has to feel comfortable with the way a song is laid out, and the feel of the lyric and the vocal has to be respected when you\u2019re putting together an arrangement. This record was easy that way. When you surround yourself with world class-musicians you want to hear their take on things\u2014the way they interpret the music is a big part of what we do. The beauty of having musicians of this quality is that you can just roll tape. You don\u2019t have to fix much. Susan\u2019s vocals are generally live on the floor. There\u2019s not a lot of studio trickery going on.<\/p>\n
Did you struggle with any songs?<\/b><\/p>\n
TRUCKS: Some were harder than others. When we tracked \u201cDo I Look Worried,\u201d we were really close, but we just weren\u2019t all the way there. It got to the point where the band was growing frustrated. We finally got the take and it hit me that it was best for the song if everyone was a little angry. It fit with the sentiment of the lyric, which had a little piss and vinegar.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s it like working with Jim Scott?<\/b><\/p>\n
TRUCKS: Jim really feels like another member of the band at this point. He\u2019s been there from the beginning and is a real calming influence. With him, I feel like we\u2019re getting the best of the band. Ninety-eight percent of the time, our instincts are the same. Jim makes records the old way. It pushes us to be braver and not rely on things like Pro Tools. With digital recording, you can have 50 tracks and do all these things, but does it really make the record better? We mixed to tape, and I think on the next record, we\u2019re going to experiment with recording to tape. We go in the studio with the mentality of not having a million takes. You do your homework on the front end\u2014get it right, play it right, and don\u2019t use the studio to practice. In a lot of ways he restores your faith in record-making.<\/p>\n
TEDESCHI: He\u2019s done this for so long that everybody knows how great he is. Whether it\u2019s the band, record company or management, people trust his judgment. We can trust ourselves, but not everybody else trusts us.<\/p>\n
Did Oteil\u2019s absence affect production?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
TRUCKS: I think it worked out for the better. Everybody in the band had to get in line and pull a little extra weight. Everybody we played with taught the band something about itself\u2014and it showed us the different possibilities. We had serious players step in, and everybody brought a completely different color and character to the music. We weren\u2019t really planning on recording with four different bassists. When we went into the process of replacing Oteil, my thought from the beginning was that we shouldn\u2019t jump in and hire the first person we found, but take six months to play with different players, and when we found the right fit, it would be obvious. We played with some amazing people. While we were making the record, we were rehearsing for tours with different bass players who would be down\u00a0there, and if we had extra time after\u00a0rehearsing, we\u2019d cut some tracks. We\u2019ve been blessed to play with some of the best bass players in the world.<\/p>\n
\u2013Juli Thanki<\/p>\n
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TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND For these Grammy-winning blues rockers, the bar is always set high\u00a0\u00a0 The Tedeschi Trucks Band is only three years old, but its namesakes, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, have been married more than a decade, and they\u2019re about to take their best collaborations\u2014their two children\u2014to watch the Pittsburgh Pirates\u2019 batting practice before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[7093,4642],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11057"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11057"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11060,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11057\/revisions\/11060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}